Guidelines called “Knigge” tell us how to act in society in different situations. What is the origin of these “Knigge” guidelines?

And then I found this article about a German writer called Adolph Freiherr Knigge. He is best remembered for his book Über den Umgang mit Menschen (On Human Relations). Well, this book was not at all about good manners in the first place. Mistakenly, Knigge’s work was misinterpreted and is only known today as guidelines for good manners.

Chili peppers contain an alcaloid which is named capsaicin. This compound belongs to the capsaicinoids and is also the primary ingredient in pepper spray. When it comes in contact with mucous membranes, it gives you a burning sensation. Interestingly, it does not bind to taste receptors but to pain receptors in the mouth and throat.

And why is water not effective to clear this burning sensation? Capsaicin is not soluble in water.

Test tubes can be decorated with special glass colors, e.g. Glass Color BodyLine.

When I decorated name plates made of test tubes, I dipped the test tubes into dark violet glass color. To dry the test tubes they were installed on wood sticks. It took a very long time to dry them… at least a few days.

Then names were printed on paper (in the right dimensions), were cut out and

subsequently inserted into the painted test tubes.

To fill up the test tubes I used heart-shaped sugar and cotton.

In the end, test tubes were decorated with a white ribbon.

Annotation

This is a really simple way to decorate name plates for special occasions. And it’s not expensive. But it really takes a long time for the glass color to dry and it does not smell very healthy.

And of course, one should take care of the test tubes. They can easily break when handling them too harsh.

300g flaky pastry

250g whipped cream

250ml milk

Marrow of a vanilla bean

1 package of vanilla pudding powder

2 egg yolk

50g sugar

Preparations

1. Mix whipped cream, 200ml of milk and marrow of vanilla bean and boil it up. Mix 50ml of milk, vanilla pudding powder, egg yolk and sugar and add it to the previous mixture. Boil it up again and then let it cool down to a lukewarm temperature.

2. Cut out 11 circles of flaky pastry (11cm Ø) and put them into pre-lubricated muffin forms. Then add the vanilla cream.

3. Insert them in the pre-heated oven (230°C) on the lowest rail for 20 minutes.

Annotation

This recipe is really simple. But beware of taking the cakes out of the muffin form. Of course they are hot and the vanilla content is quite fluid at this time. So beware of taking them out slowly or elsewise they could fall and all the vanilla content is gone

Annotation
Better drink it as soon as possible. Not only because of the vitamins It’s very sweet and delicious in the first place but when you wait a few hours it will taste bitter.

Austria vs. Luxembourg

Of course one can not really compare these two polls ’cause they are dependent on the people asked and both polls are not based on only one single event. But of course they still have an important impact…

Well, personally I like such documentaries. Even if they tell you that all you eat, all what’s produced in our world nowadays, all we use for paying our bills, is all BAD…VERY BAD. But I must say I’m coming out even more optimistic of such a movie than e.g. G.I. Joe.

In the last few weeks, I watched several documentaries. There is, e.g. this new documentary about plastic, called PLASTIC PLANET. It’s been directed by an Austrian, so it won’t probably be in theaters all over the world. Well for me, the documentary wasn’t very convincing first. Some days later, I watched another documentary called “Addicted to Plastic: The Rise and Demise of a Modern Miracle”.

“Food, Inc.” was also worth seeing, as well as “Let’s make money”.

What is your opinion about these new documentaries? Has anyone already seen “Capitalism: A Love Story”?

In a two-day-course, Georges and i had the chance to learn how to create chocolate truffles. I’ve already tried it some years before at home but of course the result wasn’t that perfect. So we signed up for a course held by the VHS here in Vienna.

In a group of 9 people, we first created all kinds of truffle fillings. It’s surprising that in only 2 and a half hours you can prepare the fillings for butter, cream liquor, fruit, nougat and “canache” truffles.

On the next day, chocolate hollow balls filled with the diverse sins are closed up by – guess what – chocolate and are eventually decorated.

We’ve learned that creating chocolate truffles is not really difficult. You just have to own the appropriate material… and always check on the right chocolate temperature.